who cares about last years total ? The main question is what is the projected points for the 9th place team THIS YEAR ? Without looking at the stats, it doesn't appear that it will take as many points to get in this year as last.

who cares about last years total ? The main question is what is the projected points for the 9th place team THIS YEAR ? Without looking at the stats, it doesn't appear that it will take as many points to get in this year as last.

A lot of people have said that, this year, it'll take 100 points to get into the playoffs, assuming we're talking about the Western Conference.

But then again, people were saying this around Thanksgiving. Have things changed since then?

A lot of people have said that, this year, it'll take 100 points to get into the playoffs, assuming we're talking about the Western Conference.

But then again, people were saying this around Thanksgiving. Have things changed since then?

Plus, the idea is to improve each year, not regress.

what is your idea of "improving" ? I'm sure there are 30 teams in the league that would like to be improving but reality says that your not gonna improve every year. We should be hoping to get into the playoffs, regardless of position.

But then again, people were saying this around Thanksgiving. Have things changed since then?

Yes, Teams in the West have averaged 51.06 Games Played....because of the Olympic break, on January 23 of last year teams in the west had averaged 51.4 games played. Looking at the standings last season for that day and the point difference of the team that is currently in that spot in the standings (i.e Vancouver is in first right now with 75 points so the 1st differential is -3):

The biggest difference is that the top 8 have a combined 17 fewer points than last season, while the bottom 7 have 6 more points. Altogether there are 11 fewer points in the west this year (1 less OT loss point, 5 more losses in East vs West match-ups). What this all means is that despite the point totals off the playoff cutoff being the same there are 9 teams now within 3 points of 8th place compared to 6 last year creating more fluidity in the standings. Last year Colorado was in 8th with 95 points, but Colorado could have had 91 points and still made the playoffs...or we could have had 91 points last season and still made the playoffs as the 8th seed assuming that the 5 extra losses came in games that we beat playoff or Eastern conference teams.

Whether or not we make the playoffs won't be about how many points we get, but who we beat and who we give points to. Beating teams like ANA, SJ, Pho, Minn, Col, and Cal the rest of the times we play them will be extremely beneficial.

"A lot of people have said that, this year, it'll take 100 points to get into the playoffs, assuming we're talking about the Western Conference.

But then again, people were saying this around Thanksgiving. Have things changed since then?

Plus, the idea is to improve each year, not regress."

Look at the standings. Even with the Kings recent losing, they're still tied for 8th in points. The Kings are only 3 points out of 4th. They're only 7 points behind Dallas for 1st in the division.

The Kings may miss the playoff this season. However, it's not going to take a miracle for them to make the playoffs. It's not even completely out of the question that they could still win the division.

We seem to be in such a hurry to define the Kings as either an improved team, or a team in regression. The Kings have to be at point A by year 3, and point B by year 4, and point C by year 5. But the Hawks were here by the 10th minute of the 3rd period of game 36 in the 3rd year. The Penguins were here when they did this or that. Every team is built differently. Different players, different development, different circumstances. Take a breath, relax, and let the season play itself out. We'll see where the Kings stand then.

I remember the Oilers in 05 barely made the playoffs by grabbing the 8th seed and look where they ended up.

Dead Last this year?

The link in Haik's post is the one to go to.

I'm comfortable with 94 pts as where we finish. To get 94 pts we need to go 17 - 11 - 2. Thats a winning pct of .600 and gives us a 95.8% chance of being in the playoffs. Even 93 pts gives us an 87.7% chance of playoff hockey, 92 pts = 72% chance, while at 91 pts we are only 50%. At 90 pts it drops to 28%.

I'm not concerned with last year. We lost in the first round. Don't want to do that again. We can make it with less, but the chances decrease significantly as you can see.

It's not so much where we finish as long as we nab a playoff spot. I think despite the adversity and the setbacks we've had this year, its only going to make this team (in particularly our young guys) stronger.

I'll be happy if we come out with less points yet nab a playoff spot because the hard times we've been having (the losing streaks) only teaches our boys how to work through adversity. Regardless where we finish, I think it's a win-win for the organization.

Going 19-11-0 Gives us 96 points on the year, what a non-playoff team like Calgary would have had to have in order to knock of Colorado for the 8th spot. But there's a big difference in the standings depending on who we beat and who beats us. We have 5 games against the East left, 2 against Detroit, Columbus, and Vancouver, and 1 against Edmonton. These are teams who I consider irrelevant to our position in the standings. If we lose 11 of those 12 games, but win the other 19 on our schedule, 96 points will be a guaranteed playoff spot. But if we win those 12, and lose 11 of the 19 other games against the teams currently ranked between 3rd and 13th we won't make the playoffs as we are essentially handing the teams around us 4 point leads every time we lose.

So the game against Calgary on Saturday is critical, the following 6 games against CBJ and the East.....not nearly as important as the other 24 games on our schedule....but picking up points there would still obviously be nice.

Like it was mentioned above, if you cant do that then you don't deserve to make it.

Good post. Each game isn't the season. We have to go 600!... That's tough, that's difficult, but that's also losing 40% of your games.

I cannot believe how close it is this season. The difference between 9th (Kings) and 5th (San Jose) is TWO points! I can't remember when it was that close. We play San Jose and 5 whole spots in the western conference rankings are up to be won in a single game. Crazy!